I feel your pain.

HR can come across as quite pleasant, but do always serve the company’s best interests so it’s really best not to volunteer too much information as you well know at this stage.

I often think of them as the secret police of the company, convivial on the surface but always making notes and filing things, utterly ruthless behind the scenes. Well, at least at what they’re employed to do anyway. I wouldn’t put them in charge of anything important in the grander scheme of things.